La Union (The Union) is a committee of the town of San Lorenzo. All the members are women of the area who do their best to provide for the needs of their families. They are the heads of their households and they want to grant a better future to themselves as well as to their families.
Mercedes is the president of the group; she is a retailer and she says she has a well-stocked store thanks to which she satisfies the requests from her neighbors and other people. She says she has started with a small shop, but she has succeeded in making it grow thanks to her hard work and her great effort. She dreams of expanding her shop in order to grow as a micro entrepreneur.
She is requesting a loan to stock up her small store with drinks, dairy products, vegetables, fruits and other basic necessities with which she will keep her shop well supplied.

Additional Information

About Fundación Paraguaya

Fundación Paraguaya is a financially self-sustaining social enterprise that promotes entrepreneurship in urban and rural areas through microfinance, education programs, and more. Its focus on agriculture has helped many farmers boost their crop yields. And a number of other borrowers have taken out loans to start and grow social businesses that have helped deliver eyeglasses, medicines and other helpful services in their local communities.

This is a Group Loan

In a group loan, each member of the group receives an individual loan but is part of a larger group of individuals. The group is there to provide support to the members and to provide a system of peer pressure, but groups may or may not be formally bound by a group guarantee. In cases where there is a group guarantee, members of the group are responsible for paying back the loans of their fellow group members in the case of delinquency or default.

Kiva's Field Partners typically feature one borrower from a group. The loan description, sector, and other attributes for a group loan profile are determined by the featured borrower's loan. The other members of the group are not required to use their loans for the same purpose.